Advogato blog for nuncanadahttp://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/
Advogato blog for nuncanadaen-usmod_virguleSun, 2 Aug 2015 18:29:51 GMTThu, 6 May 2010 19:48:32 GMT6 May 2010http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=30
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=30Actually in the model the observers will agree on velocity
as percentage of light speed.
The difference comes from acceleration. There is a
prefered "absolute 0 velocity", and the observer that is
closer to it will have its time going faster than the
other.
<p> From General Relativity these observers observations
should be simmetric.
<p> If we were to measure Gravity's contribution in towers in
both poles they should not agree...
<p> That pretty much rules out discrete time models?Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:05:25 GMT27 Apr 2010http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=29
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=29Found out a model for a theory of mechanics with discrete
time which preserves Lorentz invariance.
<p> Unfortunally it seems break one of Realitivity's axioms,
that two observers agree on their relative velocity. And
it also ends up creating a prefered frame of reference.
<p> If some spaceship's intruments doesnt agree with our
velocity measurements on Earth, someone send me an email :-
PFri, 5 Dec 2008 03:05:23 GMT5 Dec 2008http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=28
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=28<em>Dynamic Programming</em> is a nice general procedure to
attack some specific exponential algorithms and reduce them
to polynomial time. But beware, they aren't usually created
taking in mind the symmetries of the problem in question, so
they may leave a lot to desire to come close to a algorithm
designed with the given problem in mind.
<p> <p> So for instance, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_matrix_multiplication" >matrix
chain multiplication</a> which is a textbook example for
dynamic programming will give out a O(n^3) algorithm. There
are much better algorithms for this problem out there,
specifically a O(n*log n) <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=403" >one<a>.
<p> <p> Just after i first was taught about the chain matrix
multiplication problem and it's dynamic programming solution
i couldn't believe that was the best algorithm that
could be done for it. Some days later after trying first to
find an algorithm and then looking a lot around the internet
i finally found this paper. Thanks
Hu and Shing for the great work and taking out my obsession
with this problem.</a></a>Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:44:48 GMT24 Sep 2008http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=27
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=27Am I crazy?
<p> <p> * I believe formal methods (typed lambda calculus, example:
Coq) is
the path for the future of programming, not all the fashion
industry
that comes from Software Engineering and business.
<p> <p> * I believe deep down time is discrete (maybe because i have
been
programming since being 6 years old, and that scrambled my
head to
disbelieve the continuum?). Even being a maverick in math and
physics during school i never liked geometry, I felt
uncomfortable
with continuity since early on.
<p> <p> * I believe democracy with capitalism and inheritance has
always failed, its
inefficiency and unfairness in all levels is just absurd.
There must
be a better social arrangement, and merit has to play a big
part of
it, not which family you grew into.
<p> <p> * I haven't been able to make myself believe that the
discrete logarithm problem doesn't have a polynomial
solution. Didn't find an algorithm but the problem just
seems to have too much "symmetry".
<p> <p> See? I told you that I am crazy.
<p> <p> Tue, 13 May 2008 05:44:25 GMT13 May 2008http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=26
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=26<b>A new world for open source is blooming!</b>
<br>
<br>
Almost everyone is unaware but the seeds of change have been
planted! To a better open source community we are going to!
<br>
Open Source is a lot of times regarded as an example of
Meritocracy in action, but if you read <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s6818.html" >Amartya
Sen's article
about Meritocracy</a>, you will recognize that most of Open
Source projects fit more in his description of a 'static'
meritocracy than a 'dynamic' one (my words to resume his
thoughts), and Sen shows how what should be regarded as a
real meritocracy is the dynamic qualities.
<br>
To our rescue comes the knight in his shinning armor, not
other than the famous Linus Torvalds! I guess most readers
think i am crazy by now, but keep up and maybe it will make
sense.
<br>
DVCS have been around longer than git but not only by
creating a functional open source DVCS, but by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8" >evangelizing
the benefits of a distributed system</a> he has planted the
seeds
that will change the future (interestingly for all the
democracy and meritocracy fanatics, this necessity came from
a "dictatorship").
<br>
And <a href="http://www.github.com" >GitHub</a> is sign of
the changes to come, once oss developers start to rethink
forking not as deviating from the community but as a common
fact of producing software, the whole community structure
will change!
<br>
No longer the "core group" will have the overwhelming power,
nor will it matter much, probably such a notion will end up
existing mostly. We will have the real possibility for the
community to choose what to follow from whom, github is a
start in that direction.
<br>
I am waiting anxiously for the future, a dynamicly
meritocratic one for OSS.Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:19:15 GMT13 Dec 2007http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=25
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=25How i would like to program:
<p> Be able to create function specifications that
completely describes the relationship between it's input and
output.
<p> function sort <br/>
Input: List of a <br/>
Output: List of a
<p> Relationship: <br/>
- output's list must be sorted (not enough, [] is sorted)
<br/>
- every a in input must be in the output's list (not
enough, we might have duplicated elements) <br/>
in the same number as they appear in the
input's list
<p> That would be great... Now anyone could invent yet
another sorting algorithm and prove it to follow these rules.
<p> Btw, the function signature should make the compiler
check if the specification makes it really a function, not a
relationship or a partial function. Sat, 2 Jun 2007 19:58:25 GMT2 Jun 2007http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=24
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=24<b>GPLv3, solving yesterdays fight!</b>
<p>
People are still 'fighting' Microsoft's imperialism while
the real danger now is from web companies, mainly
impersonated by Google.
<p>
We need an open source license that obliges whoever changes
it's code to publish it publicaly in the Internet. To
certify that they will play by the book, there should be an
organization to arrange for the permanent publicity of such
code.
Thu, 8 Mar 2007 16:28:47 GMT8 Mar 2007http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=23
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=23Sun is known for his long time hatred of
Microsoft, but what makes me blog about this is it's
relationship to <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal">Hannibal</a>'s
life...
<p> <p> <p> Hannibal's father made him and his brothers swore to
destroy
Rome when he was young, till his death he was still very
much enraged against Rome looking for oportunities to attack it.
<p> <p> <p> Neverthless Hannibal did win lots of battles against
Rome
and became quite famous for his daring adventure in Italy.
But he never was able to doom Rome. Maybe if ....
Now, Sun did win the languages battle, but was not able to
deal the fatal blow with it. Is it doomed to the same fate
of Hannibal, a "slow" "agonizing" (in the sense that he
never realized his objectives and had all his family members
killed by the Romans) death?
<p> <p> <p> Now the evil empire will revive from the threats...
<p> <p> <p> How long will it take for the barbarians to come?Sat, 16 Dec 2006 14:41:22 GMT16 Dec 2006http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=22
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=22<p><strong>Strong Types</strong><p>
<p>My previous programming experience (PHP, TCL, Java, C,
C++) had made me believe that Types were evil, they were
there just to add more characters to be typed without any
real value.
The errors in all these languages (not C and C++ that done
have GC, tend to have much more bugs and more complicated to
find out) tend to be in places where the type system didnt
help anything.
<p> <p> <p>And then i learned <b>Haskell</b>: now i believe strong
typing is FANTASTIC as long as you have a good type system!
Actually i wish Haskell had even more typing facilities
(there is ongoing research on that) as they help so much you
to get the right code for the problem...
<p> <p> <p>Even if i dont stick to Haskell (maybe there is another
language with a even stronger type system?), it certainly
has taught me a lot of things, a mind expanding
experience...Fri, 22 Jul 2005 17:51:43 GMT22 Jul 2005http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=21
http://www.advogato.org/person/nuncanada/diary.html?start=21Which CMS?
Which FrameWork?
<p> Java, PHP or Python... The same questions, with the same multitude of answers.
Why nobody is able to agree on what should be done? Is it so hard? Or something inherently human...
<p> We need a language where there is only 1 way to do things. Or at least that all possible ways can be shown to be equivalent.